Friday, January 30, 2015

Here's the promised second half.31032 Red Creatures. 221 pieces for $14.99. Plenty of Clips, Hinges, Mixel Joints, and red pieces.31033 Vehicle Transporter. 264 pieces for $24.99. Plenty of SNOT, good color selection, and the set design might be good as terrain for 7P scale.31030 Red Go-Kart. 106 pieces for $9.99. Some SNOT, Technic, and interesting colors, along with a new piece.31029 Cargo Heli. 132 pieces for $9.99. Some SNOT, along with a good selection of Red and Yellow pieces.41091 Mia's Roadster. 187 pieces for $14.99. Some SNOT, a couple Taps, a good selection of Magenta, Medium Blue, White, and Trans-color pieces. It's also $0.08 per piece, which is phenomenal for a Friends set.70220 Strainor's Saber Cycle. $161 pieces for $14.99. Plenty of SNOT and Tecnic parts, muted color palette though.

Build. Insectaur frame. I think this is my favorite build from among all the ones I've created from the Series 2 Mixels.

I also managed small Station from some of the remaining parts.

The Questions:

Can you build something -- a frame, station, or starship -- right away? Yes. (+5)Is it below, at, or above the golden ratio? Below. (+5) (The Golden Ratio is $0.10 per part.)If you can't build a frame right away, or choose not to, does it have parts you should be able to put into use right away? Yes. (+5)Does it have more than a handful of immediately useful parts? Yes. (+5)Score: +20 (A+). Plenty of Click Hinges and Plates 1x2 w/Bar (closed ends) make this set a good starting point.

Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Parts. Plenty of Cheese Slopes, a couple of 1x4 Hinge Plates, a few Bar Claws, some Mixel Joints, two new Headlight Bricks, a handful of Clip Plate, Horizontal, some plates, some slopes, some brackets, a couple of those funky Alien Galaxy Squad pistols, and a few other parts.

Build. Beetle Walker.

The Questions:Can you build something -- a frame, station, or starship -- right away?Yes. (+5)Is it below, at, or above the golden ratio? Below. (+5) (The Golden Ratio is $0.10 per part.)If you can't build a frame right away, or choose not to, does it have parts you should be able to put into use right away? Yes. (+5)Does it have more than a handful of immediately useful parts? Not really. (-5)Score: +10 (A-). A few less Cheese Slopes and a few more Mixel Joints and this would be a really fun set.

Can you build something -- a frame, station, or starship -- right away? Yes. (+5)Is it below, at, or above the golden ratio? Below. (+5) (The Golden Ratio is $0.10 per part.)If you can't build a frame right away, or choose not to, does it have parts you should be able to put into use right away? Yes. (+5)Does it have more than a handful of immediately useful parts? No. (-5)Score: +10 (A-). While it does have a fair amount of Cheese Slopes, Spikes, 1x2 Plates, and 1x2 Unstudded Slopes, there's no more than two of any other part. There aren't any sustainable quantities of parts.

Friday, January 16, 2015

Parts. A handful of plates, a bunch of Clip Tiles and Cheese Slopes, a few of those 1x2 Bricks w/2 Studs on 1 Side, 1x2 Clip Plates (vertical), 1x2 Plate wBar (closed ends), a Technic Brick, and two 1x4 Plate w/Offset Ends, 1x2 Slope Bricks, and Cheese Slope w/Plate are what I see for interestiing parts.

Build. This set made me work for it. I

tried to build a Frame from the start

but it wasn't happening. I eventually

switched up to an IO Frigate then

went back and made a Frame.

Here's the frame. It's obviously 4P. I think it kind of looks like a Minion from the "Despicable Me" movies.

The Questions:

Can you build something -- a frame, station, or starship -- right away? Yes. (+5)Is it below, at, or above the golden ratio? Below. (+5) (The Golden Ratio is $0.10 per part.)If you can't build a frame right away, or choose not to, does it have parts you should be able to put into use right away? Yes. (+5)Does it have more than a handful of immediately useful parts? No. (-5)Score: +10 (A-). While it does have a fair amount of Clip Tiles and Cheese Slopes, they're all in varying shades of brown and there aren't plentiful quantities of other useful pieces.

Can you build something -- a frame, station, or starship -- right away? Yes. (+5)Is it below, at, or above the golden ratio? Above. (-10) (The Golden Ratio is $0.10 per part.)If you can't build a frame right away, or choose not to, does it have parts you should be able to put into use right away? Yes. (+5)Does it have more than a handful of immediately useful parts? Yes. (+5)Score: +5 (B+). This is the lowest scoring Mixel set I've reviewed so far.

The Questions:Can you build something -- a frame, station, or starship -- right away? Yes. (+5)Is it below, at, or above the golden ratio? Below. (+5) (The Golden Ratio is $0.10 per part.)If you can't build a frame right away, or choose not to, does it have parts you should be able to put into use right away? Yes. (+5)Does it have more than a handful of immediately useful parts? Yes. (+5)Score: +20 (A+). Orange and black are always a good combo.

Friday, January 9, 2015

For some reason the instruction page for Scramblers/Striders does not appear in my top ten visited of all time posts. Is this because it's easier to build than any of the other designs, or because people don't like it? Anyway. I figured maybe this frame deserved another look.

Parts. There are a fair amount of plates but almost half of them are Hinge plates. There are a couple of SNOT bricks and some Technic pieces, along with a Mixel ball joint for the chin turret. This is a good selection and should provide a good starting point for people.

Build. I managed a Frame

and a Station out of this set.

The Questions:Can you build something -- a frame, station, or starship -- right away? Yes. (+5)Is it below, at, or above the golden ratio? Below. (+5) (The Golden Ratio is $0.10 per part.)If you can't build a frame right away, or choose not to, does it have parts you should be able to put into use right away? Yes. (+5)Does it have more than a handful of immediately useful parts? Yes. (+5)Score: +20 (A+). Another Star Wars set getting the top score. Unfortunately it has limited availability.

30274 AT-DP. This is a free giveaway at Lego stores this month with a purchase of a Star Wars set. Jump on it now because it will more than likely sell out before the month is over. It is chock full of all the fiddly little bits we like. I already have one and will be reviewing it soon.

Friday, January 2, 2015

This is the last of the holiday polybag sets. Well, almost. There was a Duplo polybag but I feel no need to review it.

Bag. MSRP is $3.99 for a $0.13 Price per Piece.

Instructions.

Minifig. Nothing useful here.

Parts. Not a lot here. A couple of Lever & Bases,

Plates, Inverted Slope bricks, Clip Plate Vertical,

Rounded Brick 1x1-1/3, and a minifig Radio in

yellow are what stick out to me. The green blob

on the lower right side is a minifig scale frog.

Build. Fuzzy Frigate for MFZ:IO.

The Questions:Can you build something -- a frame, station, or starship -- right away? Yes. (+5)Is it below, at, or above the golden ratio? Above. (-10) (The Golden Ratio is $0.10 per part.)If you can't build a frame right away, or choose not to, does it have parts you should be able to put into use right away? Yes. (+5)Does it have more than a handful of immediately useful parts? No. (-5)Score: -5 (B-). I'm sure there are good Friends sets. This is not one of them.